Well...

I wasn't as preoccupied today. Partly because I was so busy, but also because the disappointment of the weekend was bound to fade sooner rather than later. I do wish I could see Kiwi Girl again, but the odds of that happening are extremely slim... probably less likely than winning the lottery? Who knows? I wouldn't mind winning the lottery either!

In other news, V accepted my friendship on Facebook! Wow! I really didn't think that would ever happen. All I have to do now is strike up a conversation.

The weekend... the aftermath.

Today has been weird. I've been preoccupied all day. Part of it is, I think, my recovery from the weekend's excesses and a lack of concentration due to quite severe dehydration. However, a large part of it is my continued disappointment at not getting contact details from the Kiwi girl and the fact she lives in London (so it's not as if I'm going to see her again). It's… frustrating, I guess. I think that's a sad reflection of my social life these days when she's easily the best prospect for a girlfriend I've met in a while… years, maybe.

On a brighter note, I was in contact with AM today, which was nice as we've not spoken properly in ages and I've arranged a night out with QC2 for early next week. I'm looking forward to that because I'm very fond of QC2 and, like the Kiwi girl, I find it very easy to talk to her. I'm sure she'll want to hear about Kiwi girl. She's probably not alone, either. There are a few female friends out there that are very interested in my love life. I'm sure they'll get the story eventually though.

Just my luck

There's a lot to talk about, but I really don't have the time or mental capacity right now to cover it all in detail, so I'm going to stick with a small part of the weekend.

While out in a pub on other business, FP got talking to a girl and her friend. He looked in need of rescue, so I made myself available and was introduced. These were two girls from New Zealand who were in the city on a weekend trip. I called across a mate of mine who's also from New Zealand and we all got talking. FP managed to slip away, and I ended up talking to the friend.

She was gorgeous – blonde, about 5' 4" and, probably the most important factor as far as I'm concerned, she was extremely easy to talk to. I've never been verbose and I'm absolutely useless at (amongst other things) making small talk. However, it was really easy with this girl and it became apparent very early on that this was more than just idle pub chat. There was a spark of something more there.

Usually when I realise that, I fall apart, especially in front of an audience, and there was an audience of about fifteen blokes that knew me in some shape or form. I've rarely pulled in those situations mainly down to "stage fright" and the fact this obsession with my own privacy means I don't want people to know what I'm up to.

Anyway, this time, I didn't bottle it and we chatted until kicking out time. As we were drinking in the busiest area of the city for taxis, FP and I suggested that it would be quicker for the girls to walk to their hotel and we'd accompany them if they wanted. They did, so we started walking. The other guys went elsewhere while we walked the girls back to their hotel. On the way we continued our chat while FP kept the other girl a discrete distance away.

Back at the girls' hotel, we chatted for a few more minutes before they left. I got a great, lingering hug (she seemed very reluctant to let go) that might have gone further had her friend not pulled her away to retire for the evening. FP and I sat on for a few more minutes then grabbed a taxi home each.

I had really enjoyed her company and found her interesting. Although she lives in London, I really wanted to get contact details from her, just to see if we could keep in contact, but it was something I never thought about until after she had gone. I had considered leaving my number behind reception for her, but as I only knew her first name, I really couldn't do it.

I'm really disappointed that we couldn't take things further or that I didn't get contact details because she's the most promising girl I've met in a long time (even more so than PB or Lickable Girl).

This weekend...

Big stag night in my home town. I'm not usually a big fan of home town stag weekends, but this one's slightly different in that the guy is coming here as he used to live here. He now lives in London with his lovely fiancé, so all the guys we went to school with are coming home for the weekend with a few other punters in tow.

I'll be very, very drunk, but I'm looking forward to it.

...and about time, too!

With my planned trip to see E next year, I had another look at my finances because, despite being quite good earlier in the year, I still had some outstanding loose ends.

I did switch bank account, but my old ones are still active with at least one direct debit still coming out and I still have three credit cards, with varying levels of debt on them (small, medium and large). However, I've swapped some money around and my old savings account is ready to close as I've transferred all my money out of it into my old current account. That's cleared the small overdraft I had and the remaining amount should pretty much clear the entire balance of the credit card with the medium balance on it. That should rid me of all my obligations to my old bank, meaning the only things I have to look at are the two remaining credit cards and my old student loan. The loan can wait a little as the credit cards do require a bit of attention... at the very least consolidation into one 0% credit card that'll help reduce that. The student loan can be deferred for another year while I beat a big hole into the credit cards.

V watch

Lord knows how many weeks, but still no acceptance.

Bugger.

Time flies

I suddenly realised today that I never got around to heading out for that drink with QC2 in September. She was busy at the time and I've been busy since, so we've just not managed to arrange it.

Now that I've thought about that, I really do want to see her. I'll drop her an email tomorrow if I get some downtime in work.

Sat nite

I was out in the pub with FP last night and his new mates. I say "new", because these guys (one in particular) have crawled out of the woodwork within the last few months and by Christ, if FP doesn't bend over backwards to accommodate them. It's these guys that usually don't make decisions about pubbing until it's too late to go out (and then the arrangements have to filter back through FP to me, so it could be FP that's the bottleneck), plus the fact that FP seems so insistent on letting them call the tunes. Actually, I did have to chase FP for the info at 8PM, and he was able to give me an answer. Maybe it is FP that's the trouble here?

Anyway, to be honest, I don't know if I like FP's mate or not (wide boy character mentioned in other posts). Most of the time, he's sound enough, but he's not the type of bloke I usually hang around with. Even with my current barren spell, I'm not as desperate for a shag as this guy is. When in the pub, his entire focus is on girls. It's unbelievable and, well, off-putting.

However, I did have a good time on Saturday night. Myself and FP split from the crowd early on and found a corner to stand in and watch the totty and hen nights in the V.I.P. area of the pub (this is where FP's female infatuated mate comes in handy). There were some stunners there too, and while there was a bit of banter with a small group of girls, that's all it was going to be. None of the girls took my fancy (apart from one, who was gorgeous, but I was just "meh" about it. I can't really explain it), so having a laugh with them was a good enough result.

Yet another post about how useless FP can be.

I changed my mind. I just fancied getting out of the house for a few hours, so a couple of pints would have fit the bill nicely. I also have some stuff for FP and I owe him a few quid, too. I could have squared all that with him tonight.

Apart from a brief message in the middle of the afternoon which was ambiguous, I heard nothing until 7:45 PM. He's heading to the pub for 8:30 PM. 45 minutes notice. 45 minutes!

That could only mean one thing... once again, his suggestion for beers wasn't aimed at me, but rather I was tagging along with his cronies and only given notice once everything was sorted and I really just couldn't be arsed tonight. While they're both harmless, one of the guys just seems to be a bit sleazy, despite the fact his fiancé is lovely and an absolute stunner and the other guy is just this wide boy character who, like FP, often feels the need to dictate what happens on a night out. I'm just not in the mood for either of them tonight, especially having to get showered, changed and intothe city in 45 minutes. It's do-able, but ultimately too much effort or something I have no control over.

Looks like it's "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" on Channel 4 at 9 PM then!

Obvious, really.

FP's not in the mood for pubbing in the city tonight.

He's suggested tomorrow night instead, but I've got three really big days in work next week plus I'm already out with an old uni mate on Monday before he emigrates at the end of the year.

I've decided not to arrange anything for tomorrow. I might change my mind, but I'll deal with that tomorrow.

Who'd a thunk it?

Message from FP: his possible arrangements have fallen through, so he is available for the pub, but he doesn't know if he's in the mood. He'll get back to me in about an hour.

Socialising

It's the weekend!

With any luck, FP will agree to come out tomorrow night for beers.

He's provisionally agreed, but I've posted before about FP's organisation when it comes to going to the pub.

Let's see what happens, eh?

A work related post

It's getting to that time where we're looking towards our Xmas bash. Unlike most companies, we don't really go in for that individual team/department sorting themselves out kind of thing. We actually do a huge umbrella Xmas bash for all 1500 employees which, for the most part, ends up being good fun with plenty of opportunity to stare at co-worker totty that gets dressed up in posh dresses and looks jolly nice. My current team are a bunch of miserable buggers though. We're a team of twelve (not including the boss) and how many are going to the Xmas bash? Three. The people in my team just aren't interested in socialising. SSCW had expressed an interest in going, but has yet to say anything and the arrangements are 99% made, so if she changes her mind next week, it'll probably be too late. Pity! While there's absolutely nothing going on there, (and nothing ever will) we have a good laugh together and she's quite pretty. Having her at the Christmas bash would be nice, if only because it would stop us from sitting at a table full of blokes. Plus I bet she looks great when she scrubs up.

Further updates...

Still nothing from V, unsurprisingly. It's been a fair amount of time since my last friend request (I can't remember offhand exactly how long), but I've checked and it still says "Friend requested", so my guess is that she hasn't yet ignored the request.

Facebook is a fucking disaster at times though (I keep getting alerts because people write on my SuperFunWall, but I don't fucking have one).

Still, I'm feeling slightly upbeat about it... plus it would be great if I got sent abroad again because it would be nice to spend some time with people that aren't my work colleagues and if that's a good looking, sexy woman, well, all the better.

Yay!

After months of trying, I've finally managed to get my wireless card on my laptop to work successfully with Kubuntu. In the end I had to upgrade totally to a newer version which still required some tweaking, but once I knew the card was working properly in Kubuntu, I was confident in fiddling with the settings until I got it working again.

Go me!

Is it too much to ask?

I know that I often bemoan my lack of social life on this blog and that's true. It's often far too quiet for my liking, but today's moaning is more about FP.

He messaged me earlier, around 7 PM, and asked if I was interested in heading out to the pub tonight. I mentioned that I was interested, thinking that he was referring to just him and me. Sadly, he wasn't. What that usually means is that his cronies do all the organising, leaving me without a voice. Later, around 8 PM, he sent another message indicating that it might be 2130 before we were heading out. It was 9:05 PM before I got final confirmation that the plans were definite and FP was heading out.

By that time I wasn't in the mood for it, much less running around at 9PM trying to get showered and ready to head out.

It would be nice if FP and his cronies could actually come to their arrangements early enough to give enough time for people (i.e. me) to get ready. Twenty minutes notice at 9 PM. Bloody hell.

coincidences

Sometimes, the strangest co-incidences just happen. Earlier in the week, while walking home with a co-worker, the subject of V was raised. It was weird because apart from to USHW, A and E to a certain extent (and on here, obviously), I've not mentioned her.

But, the subject was raised, and I talked a little about her. I never mentioned to my colleague that I had contact details for her or that she had a presence on Facebook or that I am still interested, even after three years, of pursuing a friendship (or more) with her.

It's times like this that I do miss people. The odd reminiscing isn't helpful to me at all... it often just lets the desire resurface. That's not just aimed towards women I am/was attracted to, but just any past incidences.